


WikiHow? What's a crush?

by mysticalskiees



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Ann and Futaba are best friends, Ann helps Futaba with crushes, Ann is dating Ryuji, F/M, Futaba doesn't get romance, Futaba uses gaming references, M/M, Soft n Fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 19:37:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17668814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysticalskiees/pseuds/mysticalskiees
Summary: Futabas confused about crushes and stuff, so she asks Ann for help





	WikiHow? What's a crush?

Romance wasn't something that naturally to Futaba Sakura - not in the completely lame way that your usual dumb anime protagonist with no experience with the opposite sex would feel, no - more so in the sense that she was shut in for so long with her own worries that she had no way of really understanding feelings of love outside of familial. Even before she had become a two year long shut in, she was a loner and was bullied horrendously by classmates, so she never really had the trust levels to gain friendships or crushes. That was why coming into The Phantom Thieves was such a strange feeling. There were already six members as it was, all were welcoming and didn't treat her as different or strange, no matter how much of a difficulty she appeared to be - when she was too anxious to even speak to them without wearing a ridiculous mask. Even when more people joined and had to deal with her strangeness, they still didn't treat her differently. They joked with her, talked to her, cared for her... It was a happy feeling, but a strange one, for sure. That was why her current, more intense feelings for someone in particular confused her so much. Among her group of friends, there was one boy in particular. Inari, otherwise known as Yusuke Kitagawa. In particular, he had been an interesting friend to make. He shared her weirdness, but also had a sense of strangeness where they could both make fun of each other in a joking way - she made fun of his unknowing 'perverted nature' in particular. He was an artist that was willing to paint people in swimsuits and completely nude -- how could she not make fun of that? That was like, a core personality to get an extremely weird scene in those dating simulators! Though, other than that - he was fun to speak to casually. He was the only person who'd be awake half the night, so while he was painting at god awful times, she would spam him with memes and cat gifs, as a way to battle the thought of sleeping. Of course, her spamming was mostly met with an annoyed text back from Yusuke about "how he'd block her" and she simply responded with "No u wont lolol" - there was never a response, but she would continue to spam all the same. On the other hand - sometimes, if she was feeling a little off or anxious, she would talk to him, ask him what he was painting, what he had eaten that day ( and scold him if he said nothing ), what school was like - general questions like that. Her questions were met with hesitance at first, as it wasn't the norm for her spamming, though she guessed Yusuke either got used to them or somehow understood over the phone that she wasn't feeling her best. Those nights were the reasons that she was even feeling the way she was currently. The nights that caused her to become closer with Yusuke, ones that would cause her to heart to thump in a weird way whenever her phone went off and for her to almost hope that he was awake to talk to despite his midnight painting habit not exactly being the best of habits that he could have.

She had just woken up from one of those nights - though this one was a little different from the others. When she was typing her first message to ask Yusuke about his painting, he had called her. It was definitely out of the blue and there were a few honest seconds where she just stared at her phone in disbelief, took off her glasses, put them back on again, trying to make sure it was actually real -- and it was. She did answer after getting over her five second crisis, and was met with silence - only hearing the faint sounds of a paintbrush on paper. It stayed like that for a few seconds, before Futaba had finally uttered her original text "What're you painting, Inari?". A few brushstrokes and a second of silence..."I am actually painting a picture of us in the Phantom Thieves - Of course, the picture might not be as good because its a photo reference... but I wanted to capture you all in that kind of nature, plus... the photo wasn't taken well. That is far from what we deserve as a group. Its more of a personal picture, since I have no school exams coming up--" She snorted, clearly amused by his words, but she was also somewhat moved that he was doing such a thing. Her heart was thumping awkwardly and her face was bright red and warm. Of course, she wouldn't say that out loud. "What?!" Yusuke called out, the brushstrokes coming to a stop "You're so weird, Inari--" she said, more jokingly. "I am not weird! I just want a picture that I can appreciate!" He said back, which caused her to grin "That's whats weird! You're painting us because a photograph wasn't to your liking-" she chuckled. The conversation went on for a good while - she had teased Yusuke for a little longer before having a somewhat normal chat about who knows what. It ended up getting to the point where she had put her phone on speaker so she could lay down more properly - and guessed that she had fallen asleep while listening to him talk, since she had woken with no memory of the call ever ending. It made her smile ever so slightly, though there was also this impending feeling in her stomach, one of both confusion and realization - 

Were her feelings towards Yusuke more than just that of a friendship-?

Of course, she didn't have very much experience with love, nothing more than some dating simulators she had played and romance anime she had watched - though, the girls in these situations had experiences that Futaba had been having, too. Heart thumping when he said something kind, Blushing weirdly, Feeling happiest around him, Literally going out of their way to make them happy and enjoying talks with them more than anything else in the world. It was all too similar to those games. More intense than when she thought her appreciation for Akira saving her from her prison was a crush. She didn't know what this exactly meant, though. Was she confused again? Was this an actual feeling of love or just over the top feelings of friendship? She couldn't tell whatsoever. "Ughh...!" she cried out, smacking her face into her pillow a few times in an attempt to come up with an idea of what was going on inside her head... before, an idea popped into her head - one she was surprised she had never thought of until now... Ann. Ann was actually two months into a relationship with Ryuji, so she had to have some form of experience with these distressing feelings, right?- Of course, Ryuji would too - but part of her doubted that Ryuji would ever be able to talk about that stuff, or keep her possible crush on Yusuke secret. Adding onto that, she was definitely just a lot closer with Ann in general, they had developed a close friendship and Futaba was actually who Ann confided in when things were getting serious with her own crush - so, it was definitely a good idea. She opened up her phone to text her friend, grinning to herself. Nice, it was Sunday - meaning they had no obligation to be at school and had a bunch of time to meet. This was gonna be perfect. She opened up her phone, immediately going to her messages with Ann-

'FUTABA: hey, yo ann! come meet with me at my place lol. i'll get sojiro to make u curry if u come. got important things to talk abt that only u need to know'

It only took a few seconds before a response came through-

ANN: You know that you don't have to bribe me with curry, 'Taba !!  
ANN: Meeting with you sounds great! Especially if its a secret mission ;);)  
ANN: I'll be right over, prepare snacks!

She chuckled, she always loved Ann's readiness to be there as soon as possible. She honestly feared that Ann would even skip school just to meet with her and talk to her - a partial unhealthy idea but still an appreciated one all the same. Anyway, it was time to get ready! She hopped out of bed, pulling her long hair back into a ponytail for easiness sake and pulling on some comfy clothes - a black tank top with a dumb Yoshi design, with some shorts. She headed down the hallway to the kitchen, grabbing whatever snacks she could find. Sojiro wasn't home at the moment - but all the same she guessed taking at least some form of food would be alright, especially for a meetup with friends. She headed on back to her room, setting up the mass amounts of unhealthy sweets on her unmade bed, before sitting herself down at her computer to make herself busy for a little while - which of course, ended up with about twenty minutes or so of playing a game - of course she completely ignored her dating simulators as to not scare herself even more than she already was. In times like this, the only games that were valid to play ( in her opinion ) were fighter games or shooter games. Ones that gave you every right to vent your frustrations and anxiety out on characters that would just revive themselves. It kept her occupied from thinking about what she was going to talk about with Ann, all until reality knocked on the door.

Reality, being Ann. She knew it was her because right after, she heard her voice calling "Taba!! I'm here!!". Futaba chuckled, turning her game off and slipping off her desk chair, moving over to the door and opening up - only to be pulled into a tight hug almost immediately, causing laughter to pass her lips. "Heya, Ann" She said, wrapping her own arms around her. "Taba! Heya! Whats the drama?! Its gotta be big if you're asking me to come alone and calling it secret!" She said, pulling away from the hug. "I'll tell you in a sec" she said, moving out the way so she could come in, immediately leading her over to her room, where the two girls parked themselves on the bed. This was it. This was what she was doing. Ann was looking at her expectantly, eyes wide. Her hands had already moved to open the bag of chips, clearly waiting on her to start talking. This was it, this was when she would finally reveal all this confusion she was feeling to someone, her best friend nonetheless. "Uh, right..." She started awkwardly, taking a deep breath. There was more silence, and Ann's expression was slowly turning to one of worry "Take your time, 'Taba..." She mumbled softly, smiling at her - clearly noticing Futaba's anxiety from a mile off. Those were the words that helped Futaba relax, helped her finally get everything in check and allow her to speak "Right.... so, uh, I don't know if I have a crush... on someone in particular. I was wondering if you'd have better knowledge since you've dealt with that stuff before. I can't tell if its just leveled up friendship or something else and it feels like a boss fight that I don't know how to clear because I haven't got the key item to do it yet!!" She spoke, using her obvious gaming terms to help get her point across in a way that she could understand. Though, looking in Ann's direction, she immediately noticed a look of excitement, like she was holding something back as to not freak her out, but of course -- "Oh my god.... Taba!!" She called out, bouncing in her spot. "How does he make you feel?? Wait - its a boy, right? Wait... Is it Yusuke?! You don't know how long I've been waiting for this! I had a bet with Ryuji and everything! He had no hope for you guys but I did, of course, and.... If he likes you back, I win the bet..." It was so much to the point where Futaba was practically speechless. Was it seriously that obvious-? Or did Ann have some weird friend telepathy thing? That didn't exactly matter all that much, of course - more so her worry that people could have noticed "Well... yeah, Its Yusuke. You got that part right, kinda scary in all honesty" She chuckled, causing Ann to grin proudly "That's just how much of an awesome friend I am! I don't think anyone else has gotten it yet, though - especially Yusuke. He probably doesn't understand romance all that much, too" Ann started, picking up a chip from the bag ( which was now placed between them to share, rather than on Ann's lap ) and eating it, Futaba doing the same. "Yeah, uh, anyway. How he makes me feel is like... I get this really awkward heart pounding when I talk to him,...? My face gets all warm and red when he says something nice to the point where sometimes it takes me a minute to really process and act like a normal human being. Then... I have this want to talk to him almost, I hope he's awake at night to respond to my memes or to just chat about whatever. Last night he even called me and listening to his voice helped me relax and become less anxious to the point where I think I fell asleep listening to him-" Ann was listening intently, calmed down almost fully. She was excited about this, of course but she also knew she needed to be there to help her friend out of this, especially when she could tell it was a genuine struggle for 'Taba. "Well, that's not really the exact same for how I felt with Ryuji, though of course crushes and relationships depend on the person. Though with my own knowledge of romance books and movies - that does sound like a crush to me" She said, her voice sounding more gentle. 

Futaba listened all the way through, legs crossed and thinking to herself. So, she was right...? This was the whole crush thing. What was supposed to do now-? Wait it out-? Talk to Yusuke-? "You're probably wondering what comes next, right?" Ann was terrifying. She practically read her mind once again... "Well, I think you should go for him. Don't be too obvious or terrifying, but maybe invite him out on a little one on one session? " Futaba practically deadpanned at that wording "One on one session sounds kinda sensual-" Ann sighed "You'd probably freak out if I said date" She wasn't wrong about that. Futaba laughed softly, nodding and shifted once again, sitting in the usual monkey-like position, taking another couple chips and eating them. "I could do that, yeah... but it's sorta terrifying to just ask, y'know? He might not see me in that sorta way so inviting him on dates might seem a little weird...? or forceful?" Her friend shook her head, laughing softly. "'Taba, I'll say now that if Yusuke did call you last night, he very well at least sees you as a close friend, or could possibly have feelings for you that he hasn't realised yet. He's not exactly the type to do that, especially if he's painting, y'know?....Ultimate focus, or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd keep his phone turned off while he was painting" Ann had spoke up, causing Futaba's face to once again warm up ever so slightly, pretty much gone speechless with anxiety, her heart thumping wildly. "That's just a possibility, of course, I can't exactly speak for Yusuke's feelings, but I think you should take this chance, 'Taba!" Ann's encouraging personality came through, helping Futaba settle almost. Helped her get her head in place and helped her think a little more clearly. Ann was always good at that, helping her through things that she didn't exactly get and helping her feel a little more comfortable with real life situations in general. Not only that, but Ann was just really comforting and fun to hang out with, too. She loved that about her. "Yeah,... I think I just need time to actually do it, y'know? I mean, I've only just kinda confirmed it's a crush... and then there's some awkwardness about doing it before I start back at school since I'm going to Kosei, so... y'know-?" Ann nodded, reaching out and once again hugging Futaba, patting her back gently. "Take your time, 'Taba. I'll be here for you all the way, buut-" She started, pulling away-- 

"Lets watch some movies, there's no way I'm only here to talk to you about your crush!"


End file.
